{"id":591,"date":"2015-11-19T09:24:05","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T07:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=591"},"modified":"2015-11-19T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T07:30:45","slug":"the-developer-the-upmarket-golf-estate-and-the-adequate-clubhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2015\/11\/19\/the-developer-the-upmarket-golf-estate-and-the-adequate-clubhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DEVELOPER, THE UPMARKET GOLF ESTATE, AND THE \u201cADEQUATE\u201d CLUBHOUSE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/clubhouse.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-592\" src=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/clubhouse.png\" alt=\"clubhouse\" width=\"188\" height=\"151\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>&#8220;Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose\u201d (Winston Churchill)<\/em><\/strong> Whether you are a keen golfer or not (Churchill seems to have been in the latter camp), and whatever your reasons for buying property, always keep this in mind &#8211; you are bound by the written sale agreement. \u00a0Consequently, <strong>never rely on any representations made to you unless they are written into the sale agreement<\/strong> \u2013 for almost a century, our law has been that a written contract is accepted as the sole evidence of what you have agreed: \u201cThe rule is that when a contract has once been reduced to writing, no evidence may be given of its terms except the document itself, nor may the contents of such document be contradicted, altered, added to or varied by oral evidence\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0 Our courts have allowed very few exceptions to that basic principle, and a recent SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) decision illustrates the dangers of disregarding it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Promises, Promises<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">On 10 March 2004 the buyers signed an agreement to purchase a property in an upmarket Golf Estate<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the agreement of sale the developer had undertaken to, within a reasonable time, construct for the development \u201ca clubhouse built and furnished in accordance with the upmarket quality and nature of the proposed development\u201d<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">The agreement contained standard \u201cnon-variation\u201d and \u201cnon-representation\u201d clauses, making the agreement the sole record of its terms and conditions<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">A newsletter issued in November 2004 gave more detail on the proposed clubhouse, encapsulating an architect\u2019s specifications and design of how it was going to look<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">However the developer, citing the adverse \u201cfinancial and market conditions\u201d prevailing at the time, only constructed a \u201dtemporary clubhouse\u201d, saying it would construct another one only when it was \u201cfinancially prudent and economically viable to do so\u201d. \u00a0\u201cWe have\u201d, said the developers when challenged, \u201calready provided clubhouse facilities which are adequate for the present needs of the development\u201d<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">The buyers, contending that this \u201ctemporary clubhouse\u201d didn\u2019t comply with the sale agreement (although they conceded that it was in keeping with the \u201cupmarket quality and nature\u201d of the development), successfully sued the developer in the High Court, which ordered the developer to build a clubhouse in compliance with the November 2004 newsletter<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">On appeal however, the SCA held that the newsletter could not be relied on, since it was never signed by the parties and was therefore never a term of the sale agreement<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Accordingly the newsletter could not be used to \u201camplify or lend content\u201d to the \u201cvague\u201d clubhouse undertaking given by the developer in the sale agreement<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">The end result is that the buyers must make do with their \u201ctemporary clubhouse\u201d \u2013 no doubt putting a bit of a damper on their future 19th Hole get-togethers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em>What counts is your written agreement \u2013 and it can\u2019t be vague <\/em><\/strong> Don\u2019t rely on anything said to you \u2013 verbally or in writing \u2013 outside the written, signed sale agreement. \u00a0And make sure that your agreement sets out clearly and unambiguously exactly what you are agreeing to \u2013 otherwise it could be held \u201cvoid for vagueness\u201d and unenforceable. \u00a0 Most important of all, take advice <u>before<\/u> you sign anything!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Source: Law Dot news -March 2014<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose\u201d (Winston Churchill) Whether you are a keen golfer or not (Churchill seems to have been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":595,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}